


...have no compassion...Revised and Expanded

by vitaminanime



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Abortion, Baby Yoda Being a Little Shit, Baby's first Jedi Mind Trick, Birth Control, Cravings, Doctors & Physicians, Exhaustion, F/M, Fainting, Force Lightning, Jedi Mind Tricks (Star Wars), Mandalorian Culture, Morning Sickness, One Does Not Simply Discipline a Force Sensitive Child, Original Planets, Original Species, References to the Silmarillion, Story within a Story, The Dark Side of the Force, The Helmet Stays On, Timeouts, Unplanned Pregnancy, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26243479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vitaminanime/pseuds/vitaminanime
Summary: When Cara wakes up one morning exhausted, puking her guts up, and faints during a mission, she thinks she just has some bug going around, but Baby Yoda won't keep his little hands off her stomach and sabotages her efforts to engage in risky behaviors, especially ones that could harm unborn children. Has Cara gone soft, or should she and Mando have taken more precautions during their Mandalorian mating rituals? It's a bitter pill-or more accurately, potion-for her to swallow that she must come to terms that she has nobody but herself to blame for it.
Relationships: Cara Dune & The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV), Cara Dune/The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)
Kudos: 23





	...have no compassion...Revised and Expanded

"Did you sleep well?" Said Mando.

"I'm more tired than when I fell asleep." Groaned Cara. She rolled over. "Did a steam roller droid roll over me?"

"Not that I can remember." Said Mando.

"I swear, I've never been this exhausted before. Not even when I was on a week long mission and only got one collective hour of sleep." Said Cara. She then mustered up all her strength and ran to the bathroom and threw up.

She returned from the bathroom carrying a glass of water. She chugged it down and set the glass down on the nightstand. She laid down and sighed.

"You look pale." Said Mando.

"It's just some bug that'e going around. Bugs are always going around here on Xinwerik'." Said Cara. "Unless maybe I have a parasite."

"You know the creatures that inhabit the swamp outside the city ramparts. If you had a parasite you'd know." Said Mando.

Just then, a neighbor across the courtyard flung a three-foot long leech against their window.

"HOO-EE! Another beast has been condemned to hell!" Called the voice from across the courtyard.

"Maybe it was something I ate." Said Cara.

"Cara, we all have been eating the same things and I'm not sick and neither is the kid." Said Mando.

"Speak of the..." Cara's voice trailed off as Baby Yoda waddled in, climbed onto the bed, and laid his little green hands on Cara's lower abdomen.

"Get your paws off me." Said Cara as she painstakingly set Baby Yoda down. She sat up. "It's a long day, and I can pummel through this thanks to this." She stood up and raised up an energy shot on the nightstand. "On most planets you have to go into the underworld to get ahold of these, on Xinwerik' they sell them in the corner stores." Said Cara to Mando as she ripped open the perforated seal near the lid. Baby Yoda then stood in front of her and drooped his ears and waved his hands as if to say no.

Cara then twisted the lid. "I'm taking this whether you like it or not, kiddo. I will take it." Said Cara.

Baby Yoda drooped his ears, concentrated hard, and waved his hands in a controlled motion.

Cara heasitated. "Take it, I will not." She said and emptied its contents into the wastebin.

Baby Yoda then waddled away triumphantly, having just successfully completed his first jedi mind trick.

\--

Later that day, Mando carried the unconscious Cara up the stairs and set her down on the bed.

"Maybe she really is sick." Said Mando to himself.

Baby Yoda then waddled in, painstakingly climbed onto the nightstand, wiped his brow, let out a teeny tiny "whew!" picked up the glass of water, inspected its contents, and dumped its contents on Cara's head.

Cara's eyes opened wide. "What just happened to me?" She said, her head still spinning.

Baby Yoda then crawled down the length of the bed and placed his hands on Cara's lower abdomen.

Cara's mind unclouded and she became aware of her situation. Her hair was sopping wet and Baby Yoda had his hands on her lower abdomen again.

"You menace!" She snarled at Baby Yoda and lifted him off of her and set him on the floor. "You have no right to touch me like that or to try to drown me." She growled. Baby Yoda vocalized. It probably meant "care, I do not. Take seriously what you said, I will not." and trotted off.

"Did you just say to the kid 'will you revive Cara for me?" Said Cara.

"No." Said Mando.

"Seriously, what happened?" Said Cara. A wave of faintness filled her cranial cavity and she lay back on the sodden pillow.

"You fainted. You were out cold for awhile." Said Mando.

"How did you manage to keep them from taking the kid?" Said Cara.

"I did it single handedly. It was tough without you but I followed through." Said Mando.

"This is embarrassing. I've never fainted in my life, not even during the most brutal missions of my rebellion days." Said Cara.

"It can happen to the best of us." Said Mando.

"Fainting is for weak heroines of trashy romance novels who lace their corsets too tightly." Said Cara.

"Don't knock the corsets. The dancing girls in the cantinas around here wear corsets that are laced full to bursting and skirts that weigh ten kilograms while dancing vigorously for hours on end in the high heat." Said Mando.

"Don't rub it in." Said Cara.

"Maybe you should just rest for awhile." Said Mando.

"I don't rest." Insisted Cara.

"You should anyway. If you had been piloting a ship when you fainted you could have gotten us all killed. If the kid hadn't been fiercely defensive of you that may just have happened. I'll carry out the missions the next few days while you get rest." Said Mando.

"I can rest when I'm dead." Said Cara.

"If you don't rest I'll tie you down." Said Mando.

"Fine." She grunted. "While you're at it would you get me some velocigator liver?"

"I'll order some right now." Said Mando.

"Not deep fried and rare. Very rare. If it isn't growling at me it will be overdone."

"As you wish." Said Mando.

Cara stumbled down the stairs when the delivery boy arrived with the velocigator liver. Mando was scarcely finished tipping the delivery boy when Cara snatched the box with the velocigator liver, headed to the table, opened the box, and began to cut up the bloody crocodilian liver.

"Do you how hard it was to talk the vendor into not deep frying it?" Said Mando.

"Not my problem." Said Cara as she savaged the bloody liver of the fearsome crocodilian as if she hadn't eaten in months.

"I thought you once declined liver even though you were starving." Said Mando.

"The side of remoulade makes it palatable." Said Cara. "Even decent."

"Why would you eat something you hate?" Said Mando.

"I don't hate it. It can't be all bad if it's practically all blood and iron." Said Cara.

"You are what you eat." Said Mando.

"Have you lost your mind? All the blood and iron in me is wasted and gone." Said Cara as she finished the last bite of liver. She slid the to-go box away and leaned forward and gagged.

"Are you all right?" Said Mando.

"It's like my innards are on fire." Said Cara.  
"Drink some sodium bicarbonate mixed with water." Said Mando.

"I am not drinking brackish stormdrain runoff. This is Xinwerik'. They sell hallucinogenic cocktails everywhere. I need to get my hands on as many as I can find so I can forget that I've never felt more shitty in all my life." Said Cara.

She left momentarily and brought back some hallucinogenic cocktails from the cantina down the street. She set them down on the table that Baby Yoda was just finishing wiping down.

She reached first for the red cocktail, but Baby Yoda put a little hand over the lid.

"That's mine. Don't touch it." Said Cara.

Baby Yoda then put his other hand over the purple cocktail.

"Get lost." Said Cara. Baby Yoda then hopped down from the table and onto the chair and onto the ground. He concentrated and force-spilled the cocktails, red and purple sticky liquids melded together on the floor like paint.

"How dare you!" Cara snarled at Baby Yoda. "Get on your hands and knees and clean that up until it's spotless!" Cara handed Baby Yoda a napkin. "I needed those cocktails!"

"Please don't take your suffering out on the kid." Said Mando.

"I'm not taking it out in the kid, I just needed to take a break from reality and experience all the pretty spinning colors those cocktails induce." Said Cara.

"And wake up with a massive hangover." Said Mando.

"I always feel like I have a massive hangover." Cara swooned and the world seem to tilt around her. "Maybe I really am sick." Said Cara.

"You definitely seem sick." Said Mando.

"I'll go see a doctor tomorrow." Said Cara.

The next day, Cara set off in pursuit of a doctor. As she walked through the streets of the Dreaming Planet, as Xinwerik', the planet thet were on, was sometimes called, she could understand why. Everyone else was dreaming, and she was in a waking nightmare.

The laughter of intoxicated people with their open hallucinogenic cocktails and the loud brass music the street musicians were playing made her head pound. The smells of deep-fried velocigator tails, deep fried frog's legs, and deep fried loth-pelican wings and other deep-fried swamp creatures being called out by street vendors made her stomach churn. The bright light of the perpetual summer and intolerably muggy heat seemed to turn every fiber of her being to lead. She clung to the wrought-iron support column of a townhouse to keep from fainting.

"Someone is having more fun than me." Said a A'kadïenn woman who happened to be passing by.  
"Go back to your hole and chop the dreadlocks off your hairy six-toed feet!" Snarled Cara.

"Mon cher, no need to be madder than a wet velocigator." The short six-digited swamp tamer trotted away.

Cara got ahold of herself and intended to get to the nearest medical center as fast as possible.

Luckily the nearest medical center wasn't too far away, just outside the main quarter, where the locals had to get up early in the morning to go to work.

"NUMBER ONE IN THE GALAXY IN ORGAN TRANSPLANTS" was the huge banner that graced the top of the building.

"Maybe that's what I need. A new set of organs." Cara grumbled to herself. She went up to the front gate. There were arrows pointing every which way, one to the surgical ward, one to the lobby, and in the same direction as the lobby was the morgue.

She entered with intent of finding the lobby, but the arrows seemed to lead her nowhere. She tested all the doors, but they required key-card access. Finally she found an open door.

The Twi'lek mortician in full protective getup nearly jumped out of her skin when Cara opened the door.

"You look like you've seen a ghost." Said Cara.

"You look rather ghostly yourself." She said as she began to resume attaching toe tags to corpses.

"Tell me how to get to the lobby." Demanded Cara.

"You can't miss it." Said the Twi'lek mortician. "Just go up the stairs to the main floor."

Cara turned and left.

"Y'know, Mr. Boudreaux, that brain cell of hers must be awfully lonely." The mortician addressed the corpse she was tying a toe tag to.

"I heard that." Said Cara.

"You were supposed to." Said the mortician.

Finally Cara found the main lobby. Behind the front desks were rows of receptionists of every species. Once it was her turn, Cara was greeted by a Togruta receptionist.

"Do you have an appointment?" She said.  
"Do you have any cancellations?" Said Cara.  
The receptionist scrolled through some digital reception software. "You're in luck. Dr. Ochsner has a cancellation."

"I'll take it." Said Cara.

Cara filled out digital paperwork in the waiting room of Dr. Tuur'ika Ochsner's waiting room. Here was a doctor she didn't know through a hole in the wall, and she was entrusting her care to. It seemed like a bad idea.

"I'm ready to see whoever's next." Dr. Ochsner stood at the threshhold of the waiting room. She was slight, petite, middle-aged, with short black hair and round, youthful blue eyes.

Cara followed Dr. Tuur'ika Ochsner into the examination room. Under her white coat, she was wearing black, silver, and magenta Mandalorian armor.

 _And she calls herself a Mandalorian._ Thought Cara.

"I'm going to need you to take a seat here." Said Tuur'ika. "M0g, would you please get me a diagnostic kit?"

A medical droid that had been airbrushed magenta rolled out and unfolded a vital signs monitor.

"M0g, I need a thermometer, a heart rate monitor, and a blood pressure cuff." Said Tuur'ika.

No sooner said than done, M0g had all the implements ready at Tuur'ika's disposal.

"I'm going to put this thermometer under your tongue and attach the heart monitor to one of your fingers." Said Tuur'ika. M0g then handed her a blood pressure cuff.

"I'm going to need a bigger cuff." Said Tuur'ika as she was unable to wrap the blood pressure cuff around Cara's thick bicep.

M0g obeyed Tuur'ika's command.

"Engage." Said Tuur'ika.

M0g began to analyze Cara's vital signs. After a few minutes, the results came in.

"Your temperature is a bit higher than usual and your blood pressure is lower than usual but not cause for concern. You are doing remarkably well for someone whose pulse rate is zero." Said Tuur'ika.

"I knew it." Said Cara.

"I'm going to have to take your pulse manually." Said Tuur'ika. Cara shrunk back at Tuur'ika's impressive hand strength and long, sharp nails digging into her wrist as Tuur'ika took her pulse.

"Acceptable." Said Tuu'rika. "M0g, would you please get me my instrument case and diagnostic kit?"

M0g opened a door in its central compartment and retrieved a diagnostic kit and surgical instrument case.

From the diagnostic kit, Tuur'ika selected a needle, some tubing, and some test tubes. She inserted a needle into a nice vascular vein in Cara's arm and began to draw blood.

"How much of that do you need?" Said Cara as she began to feel faint again.

"It really is less than it seems." Said Tuur'ika as she drew the sixth vial of blood. She lined them up in a compartment in M0g's side that seemed to be specifically for the purpose. "Take these to the lab."

M0g squeaked and obediently rolled off.

Tuur'ika then scanned her diagnostic kit and selected a cup with measurements on the side and handed it to Cara. Cara blushed at its implication.

"The bathroom is over there." Tuur'ika pointed with two fingers. "Do you need a glass of water?"

"No." Said Cara. She headed off.

Cara wasn't sure how much time elapsed while waiting for the results. Only that the minutes turned to hours turned into eons.

Suddenly her eyes fell on Tuur'ika's surgical instrument case. Someone had embroidered a rebel insignia on it.

"You were also a rebel?" Said Cara

"As a matter of fact I was." Said Tuur'ika. "I was chief medical officer of the Armageddon. Not a ship anyone has ever heard of but I still took pride in tending to those wounded in our cause. She went down during the Battle of Endor. I was one of the lucky ones."

Cara then noticed Tuur'ika's Mandalorian helmet on a shelf.

"Is there a reason you're not wearing your helmet?" Said Cara.

"I see no reason to, especially considering I'm in no immediate danger of getting a skull full of blaster shots." Said Tuur'ika.

"I thought that if you took it off you were no longer considered a Mandalorian." Said Cara.

"In some tribes, but not in mine. A quite fundamentalist idea to my sensibilities." Said Tuur'ika.

Just then, M0g rolled back and gurgled and squeaked to Tuur'ika and projected an analysis.

"As expected." Said Tuur'ika. "Put my instruments in the autoclave."

M0g squeaked and rolled away.

"The results came back." Said Tuur'ika.

"What disease do I have and do you have anything that can make it go away." Demanded Cara.

"You don't have any disease." Said Tuur'ika.

"Then why do I feel like shit?" Cara's patience was wearing thin. "And why do I have nothing to show for it!"

"Oh, you'll have something to show for it all right. You'll mark my words." Said Tuur'ika.

"What do you mean?"

"You're pregnant." Said Tuur'ika.

Denial set in fast. "Don't lie to me." Said Cara.

"The blood tells the story. M0g! Show the results." Said Tuur'ika.

M0g rolled back in and displayed the results on a holoscreen.

"The blood doesn't lie. You're pregnant." Said Tuur'ika.

"No. It can't be." Said Cara.

"Yes, it can be. Do you know who the father is?" Said Tuur'ika.

"Yes." Said Cara.

"Did you sleep with him or is that a rhetorical question?" Said Tuur'ika.

"Yes." Said Cara. There was no way out.

"Did you use a contraceptive?" Said Tuur'ika.

"No." Said Cara.

"Why not?" Said Tuur'ika.

"It was in the heat of the moment. We were sharing a bed-"

"Why were you sharing a bed?" Said Tuur'ika.

"There was only one bed and we flipped a credit for it and the credit landed on its side." Said Cara.

"Screw the credit-flipping thing. You should have just taken turns sleeping on the floor." Said Tuur'ika.

There was no looking Dr. Ochsner in the eye. "We were both...I wanted to know if he left his helmet on and he was willing to answer me." Said Cara

Tuur'ika rolled her eyes. "Ugh. Not one of those never-takes-off-their-helmet tribes." She muttered under her breath. "Listen, wonder-girl, on many planets you have to go to the pits of the criminal underworld to get your hands on contraceptives. Here, they sell contraceptives right next to the chewing gum and the energy drinks and hangover remedies. You can have your choice. Injections, pills, discs, potions, shots, a velocigator intestine with a knot tied at the end..."

"A what?" Said Cara.

"They're not made from velocigator intestines nowadays, the name just stuck...and those are just the options available to humans. You two could have had your choice of methods to sow your wild oats and ensure crop failure." Said Tuur'ika.

"But we weren't thinking." Said Cara.

"Famous last words. You could have gotten out of bed." Tuur'ika demonstrated by pointing with two fingers on each hand and holding up two fingers side by side. "Climbed out of bed, walked to the nearest corner store," she made a walking gesture with her fingers.  
"gotten your hands on some contraceptives." She did a reverse walking gesture with her fingers. "Come back to your lair, put them to use, and THEN done your mating ritual." She placed her two pointed fingers palm down on top of her other pointed fingers facing palm up.

"I didn't think it would happen to me. I had been with lots of guys and it never happened. I hadn't bled in years." Said Cara.

"That makes sense, considering your body composition. Amenorrhea is convenient on the battlefield but not an effective form of birth control." Said Tuur'ika."

"I didn't know." Said Cara.

"We weren't thinking, I didn't think it would happen to me, and now I didn't know? You are just full of famous last words." Said Tuur'ika.

"Do you have anything that will make it go away?" Said Cara.

"Well, you can drink hot water mixed with lemon juice for the morning sickness and eat raw velocigator liver if you need energy." Said Tuur'ika.

"I meant something that will make the baby go away." Said Cara.

"Why would you want that? Lots of women who can't have children would envy you." Said Tuur'ika.

"Who would envy me?" Said Cara.

"I see one every time I look in a mirror. I can't have any children of my own." Tuur'ika took off her belts and kama and rolled up her shirt to reveal an abdomen crisscrossed with scars, but the most glaring of them all was the angry red one slashing hip to hip across the dead center of her lower abdomen. "Gift of the Supercommandos." She said as she rolled down her shirt and put her belts and kama back on.

"You're insane. This parasite inside me is making me weak. I can't be a mercenary if I am too weak to move. I can't be a mercenary if I have a child to take care of. My...um...we were supposed to be just business partners but now he's...he's the father...he already has a son and...two children is more than I can take." Said Cara.

"I know your whole story. You're strong, you're brave, you have an inhuman amount of endurance. Your child is the only one who has ever made you vulnerable and you don't tolerate being vulnerable. You've met your match in someone someone smaller than you and you don't like that." Said Tuur'ika.

"Why does that matter? I can't take being incapacitated any longer." Said Cara.

"You're an adult. You should know how to claim responsibility for your deeds. You fucked in your bed, now give birth in it." Said Tuur'ika.

"You must have something. I know you do." Said Cara.

"I regret to inform you that I'm required by law to tell you I do, but there is no need to get hasty. Have you heard of the battle between T’ik’uri'Vrag and Sahasi?" Said Tuur'ika.

"No, but why should I care?" Said Cara.

"Sahasi was a Jedi, and T'ik'uri'Vrag, like me, was a Mandalorian. T'ik'uri'Vrag stood well over eight feet tall in full armor, and Sahasi was average-sized as humans go, but was considered as proud and as valiant as Jedi come. After T'ik'uri'Vrag and his hosts lead an attack and every man in Sahasi's company lost save himself. Sahasi intended to even out the score, so he flew off into glorious battle alone. Once he arrived at T'ik'uri'Vrag's stronghold, high atop an iron hill, Sahasi pounded on the gates and challenged T'ik'uri'Vrag to a one-on-one duel. Do keep in mind, T'ik'uri'Vrag was getting older and had some wounds that refused to heal, so he would send out his minions to do his bidding. He legitemately feared Sahasi, and stayed behind. Then Sahasi called T'ik'uri'Vrag a coward. And T'ik'uri'Vrag came. He came out kitted up in armor black as antimatter, wielding a giant warhammer of solid beskar, casting a menacing shadow, but Sahasi's lightsaber glowed blue in the crepuscule. They fought. Sahasi was agile and nimble, dodging T'ik'uri'Vrag's blows and even deflecting T'ik'uri'Vrag's warhammer with his lightsaber. Sahasi smote T'ik'uri'Vrag a total of seven times, even reaching his lightsaber under his helmet and dealing a blow to his face. The battle wore on, and eventually Sahasi stumbled and fell. T'ik'uri'Vrag braced his foot on Sahasi's neck as he raised his hammer in preparation to swing it down on Sahasi and deal the parting blow. The weight was like that of a fallen hill. Calling on the Force one last time, Sahasi, with the last of his strength, raised up his lightsaber and severed the tendons in T'ik'uri'Vrag's knee. Sahasi's dismembered body was fed to wolves, and nobody knows what became of his lightsaber, but he was celebrated for his pride and valor, and even though T'ik'uri'Vrag won, he thereafter had massive scars on his face and walked with a limp." Said Tuur'ika.

"And the point of this is bedtime story is...?" Said Cara."

"Just because your opponent is small and easy to defeat doesn't mean they can't deal permanent damage." Said Tuur'ika.

"You can't be serious." Said Cara.

"Well, the most commonly prescribed potion around here for women who don't want children is commonly referred to as 'fair maiden's tincture.' Usually nothing doesn't go according to plan, other than that you wake up in a pool of your own blood with a dead fetus at your feet, but if one is to take it, they must never have to pay the price unknowing the cost." Said Tuur'ika.

"I'll do anything to get rid of the baby. I'm sick of feeling sick. I need things to go back to the way they were before. I'm desperate." Said Cara.

"You might change your mind after reading the side effects, but whatever path you choose, your life will never be the same again. M0g, would you please get up the side effect database?" Said Tuur'ika.

M0g projected a holoscreen and Tuur'ika scrolled through it.

"There it is. Fair maiden's tincture." An image of a bottle of the potion along with a long list of side effects appeared.

"Side effects in humans alone include severe headaches, violent vomiting, severe cramping, liver failure, lateral blindness, infertility, shock, coma, and death." Said Tuur'ika.

"I'll take it." Said Cara.

"If you insist." Tuur'ika pushed a button on M0g's control panel and he stuck out a panel. Tuur'ika entered a code and then placed her hand on another panel. It scanned her hand and a card fell out of M0g's thorax.

"Go upstairs to the pharmacy, tell them Dr. Ochsner sent you, take a number, wait until they call you, and redeem your baby-killing potion there. I don't wish ill on you, but if you wake up tomorrow in the ICU in a pool of your own blood and blind in one eye, don't tell me I didn't warn you." Said Tuur'ika.

Cara took the prescription card and headed upstairs to the pharmacy. It seemed no wonder the Armageddon went down. With Tuur'ika as chief medical officer, it seemed as if given the choice between getting treated by her and death, death would have been preferable. Cara took a number and waited. Though time oddly passed quickly on the thirty-six hour rotations on this planet, in the pharmacy, time seemed slowed down. She watched as other people of various species who had taken a number after he got called first. Her head spun, her stomach turned, and her mouth tasted as though she were sucking on a piece of metal. That made time seem to go by even slower.

Finally they called her number. The world spun as she stood up, but she quickly got ahold of herself as she went to claim the fate-sealing potion....

Cara returned to their townhouse and set a prescription box with something rattling around inside it down on a coffee table. Baby Yoda waddled over and furiously began to shake the box, as if he was under the impression something evil was contained therein.

"That's my box!" Said Cara as she peeled Baby Yoda's little green fingers off it.

Baby Yoda's round, normally innocent eyes were full of rage as Cara set him back and put the box on a higher counter. He then raised his little green hand and summoned a bolt of force lightning, aiming for the box. The force lightning missed and blew a dent in the wall.

"That's no way to treat a house that isn't ours!" A very stunned Cara had no time to growl when Baby Yoda issued forth another bolt of force lightning, still aiming for the box but this time hitting the ceiling. Chunks of smoking wood, plaster, and fiberglass rained down from the dent in the ceiling.

"YOU HOLY TERROR!" Cara yelled at the remorseless Baby Yoda.

Mando then bolted over and lifted up Baby Yoda and held him at eye level.

"Listen, kid. I like a whole lot. I may not understand what you just did, but your behavior was unacceptable." Said Mando.

Mando then carried Baby Yoda to the corner and sat him down in his timeout chair.

"You are going to sit in the corner until you regret what you've done." Said Mando.

"Greee." Baby Yoda vocalized. It probably meant "stay here forever if need be, I will. Set, my path is. With no regret, I live."

"How did it go at the doctor's?" Mando asked Cara.

"Tuur'ika Ochsner the most patronizing, condescending person I've ever met. Sociopaths like her should not be allowed to be doctors." Said Cara. 

"I didn't ask about the doctor. I asked how it went at the doctor's."

"Bad."

"Are you sick?" Said Mando.

"No" said Cara.

"Are you dying?" Said Mando.

"Worse." Said Cara. "I'll wait to tell you until after the kid has gone to sleep.

"It must be pretty bad if you don't want the kid to know." Said Mando.

"He knows. He knew before I did." Said Cara. "And he already doesn't like how I intend to fix it."

Once Baby Yoda was asleep, Cara stood in front of Mando and took his hands in hers.

"I have something really important I need to tell you." Said Cara.

"What is it?" Said Mando.

"I'm pregnant." Said Cara.

"Does that come as any surprise to you?" Said Mando.

"It does." Said Cara.

"You should have known it might happen when you wanted to find out if the helmet stays on." Said Mando.

"I'm so lean I haven't had my period since I can't remember when. I've been with lots of guys and nothing happened. I didn't think it might happen to me. I always thought unplanned pregnancies only happened to other people." Said Cara.

"You could have just taken my word for it when I told you we leave our helmets on during sex." Said Mando.

"I didn't believe you. I wanted to find out firsthand so badly I became unaware of the consequence. It's not like you're blameless in this either." Said Cara. "And it wasn't even any good the first time."

"You could see it as another challenge, if nothing else." Said Mando.

"I'm a soldier, not a mother." Said Cara.

"I would think those would go well hand in hand." Said Mando.

"Hand in hand? Hand in hand my ass!" Said Cara. Her voice cracked. "In order to be a soldier, you must be strong. But this...this THING inside me is making me weak! I can't stand the exhaustion or the puking or the heartburn or cravings or fainting right in the middle of a mission. This thing inside me is draining me of all my strength that I fought so hard to earn. I can't take it anymore and it's only going to get worse from here. I can't fight if I'm waddling and fainting and pissing every fifteen minutes." Said Cara.

"It's only for nine months." Said Mando.

"Then what? I'll have a crying, drooling, screaming, leaking bundle of lard that's my responsibility until it comes of age. My figure will be ruined, I'll never have any time for anything for myself, I'll never sleep again, and admit it, if one kid is bad enough, two would be truly terrible." Said Cara.

"I'll help you." Said Mando.

"That's easy for you to say when you're not the one who feels like they're having the worst case of the flu in their entire life." Said Cara.

She wondered what Mando's expression was behind his helmet.

"I did however get this." She produced a bottle labeled "fair maiden's tincture".

"I got the doctor to very grudgingly write me a prescription for this. It's for women who don't want children." Said Cara.

"Are you sure you want to follow through with this?" Said Mando. He read the warning on the label. The warning mentioned that the tincture "may cause infertility or death."

"Yes. I can't take this creature inside me draining me of all my strength. Strength it's not entitled to." Said Cara.

She cracked open the lid and removed the bottle. It smelled viley bitter.

"You do realize you're killing it." Said Mando.

She raised the bottle. "Of course I realize I'm killing it. I've killed more people than I can count." She felt a pang in her stomach and tears started to crawl down her cheeks.

"Do you think you'll regret this later? What do you think you will feel once it's all over?" Said Mando.

"Back when I was sniping stormtroopers, the only thing I felt was recoil." Said Cara. She raised the bottle to her lips.

Mando lightly gripped Cara's wrists. "Have you considered how I would feel?" Cara hesitated. She didn't resist Mando's grip even though she could have easily.

"At the end of the day it's your choice, but do keep in mind that it's my child too. The kid will have a little brother or sister to play with, and once the baby brother or sister grows up and we're dead and buried, he or she can take care of the baby." Said Mando.

Cara let the bottle of abortefecant slide from her fingers and fall to the ground. The glass shattered and shards and potion flew everywhere.

Mando took Cara's hands in his.

"Mando, will you marry me?" Said Cara.

"Yes." Said Mando.

"When?" Said Cara.

"How about now?" Said Mando.

"Really?" Said Cara. "Now?"

"Just repeat after me." Said Mando. "We are one whether we are together or apart."

"We are one whether we are together or apart." Repeated Cara.

"We will share everything and we will raise our children as warriors." Said Mando.

"We will share everything and we will raise our children as warriors." Repeated Cara, her voice cracking and tears streaming down her face.

Mando pulled her close and they kissed through his helmet.

"Is that really all there is to it?" Said Cara.

"Mandalorian weddings don't need to be fancy. Just functional." Said Mando.

Mando pulled Cara close and she broke down and sobbed, her tears rolling down Mando's right pauldron, like warriors marching into battle.

Epilogue

Baby Yoda was sound asleep in his crib that night, when in the middle of the night, an eerie glow awakened him.

Baby Yoda opened his mouth to scream in fright, but the ghostly figure raised up a single green finger.

"Be not afraid, child, for here to help you, I am." Said the force ghost of Master Yoda.

Baby Yoda grunted in reluctant relief.

"Even if remember me, you do not, remember you, I do." Said Yoda.

"Tough, the times have been for you, child, but deplorable and dangerous was your action of earlier this night." Said Yoda.

Baby Yoda squeaked. It probably meant "nothing wrong, did I do."

"Every right you had, to feel the way you did. You were in fear for the safety of your as-of-yet brother. Angry you were at your mother for her to have no compassion for the child in her womb. And it all lead to...harness the power of the Dark Side of the Force, you did. Untrodden, the path to the Dark Side is best left." Said Yoda.

Baby Yoda grunted. It probably meant "what do you mean?"

"Powerful is the Force in you, child. Powerful it is in all our kind. You have a great deal of strength in the Force, a great deal of Force you have in you, learned how to use it, you have not. In time, find the right teacher, you will. Plead you, do I, not to channel the power of the Dark Side again."

Baby Yoda vocalized. It probably meant "but effective, it was!"

"Other, greater ways there are to persuade one, child, ones less dangerous. Others more effective. In due time, you will understand them. For the time being, have the strength to accept the things that change, you cannot, have the gumption to change the things you can, you must have, and to know the difference, you must have the common sense." Said Yoda.

Baby Yoda grunted. It probably meant "see I do not why so bad, the dark side is."

"My child, understand you must, seductive, the Dark Side is. Horrible, the Dark Side is. Ugly, the Dark Side is. Terrible payments for its gifts, it demands." Said Yoda.

Baby Yoda opened his mouth to wail in the regret he was entirely devoid of earlier that night.

"Hush, child. Wake your mother and father, you must not." Said Yoda.

Baby Yoda hiccupped. It probably meant "Understand what I did wrong, I do now."

"In due time, to harness the power of the Force, you will learn. Find the right teacher, you will. In mind I have a teacher who perfect for you would be. Very fond of you, she was. Teach you, I hope she can. Many there are, in this universe and beyond, hope she can teach you. Beyond my control, it is." Said Yoda.

Baby Yoda grunted. It probably meant "join the dark side, did I? Too late to go back, is it? A terrible payment, did I make?"

"Join the dark side, you have not. Too late to turn back, it is not. Atone for your misdeeds last night. Turn not to the Dark Side again. A time-out and being sent to bed without supper, let be the most terrible payment you ever make." Said Yoda.

Baby Yoda babbled. It probably meant "but trying to help my brother, I only was!"

"Hmm." Said Yoda. "A devoted older brother, you already are, but keep in mind, you'd better, paved with good intentions, the road to the Dark Side is."

Baby Yoda vocalized mournfully. It probably meant "stay here until I fall asleep, can you?"

"Short, my time here grows. What I told you, remember, and tread the path of light you will always will." Said Yoda. A beam of sunlight streamed through the window and fell into the room. Master Yoda's force ghost vanished in the first light of dawn. Baby Yoda went back to sleep. A sadder and wiser child, he rose the morrow morn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for taking the time to read this. I added in the scene where Cara gets the news broken to her that she's pregnant, and gave Tuur'ika characteristics of a friend in real life who never accepts excuses for anything, which I feel expands her character develoment by leaps and bounds, even if her bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired. In the original Mando proposes to Cara but in this one Cara proposes to Mando. I think it was more in-character and had a nicer flow when Mando proposed but with Cara proposing it shows she's accepted responsibility. I'm curious to hear which one you prefer.
> 
> Those of you who have read my fic "Mouths of Babes" will remember that Baby Yoda met Master Yoda and that Ahsoka was ready to give her life for Baby Yoda, and many in this world wish to see Ahsoka train Baby Yoda.
> 
> Once again thank you for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, thank you for reading. I definitely made a lot of changes to this version, including including the scene where Tuur'ika breaks the news about the pregnancy and how it plays out. I ended up giving Tuur'ika characteristics of an IRL friend who never takes excuses for anything, and it gave her a massive power-up of character development, even if her bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired. I also gender-flipped the proposal, which I'm not sure I prefer but it adds a different assumption of responsibility and I'm curious to hear: which version you prefer?
> 
> I also included the epilogue in the main chapter rather than as a separate chapter since it seemed to get overlooked. Those of you who have read my fic "Mouths of Babes" will remember that Baby Yoda met Master Yoda and that Ahsoka adored Baby Yoda was ready to take a bullet for him.


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